TheMaster , your problem is simply making comparisons with your beloved football all the time through your football tinted glasses. You need to watch more sports and appreciate that not all games are like gaelic football.

ZUL10 (Clare) - Posts: 693 - 03/02/2015 18:58:21    1689774

My club is a duel club and I played both growing up and enjoyed both and I loved watching John Galvin and the boys going toe to toe with kerry in the last decade and am dissapointed to see us go back alot recently.. but for me, hurling is far more exciting. | supposed they both have there unique skills but for me theres nothing more impressive than catching a stiotar from 70 yards with lads swinging sticks at your hand! Someone said its impossible to tackle because the small ball is in the players hand but you can only hold it for 4 steps sure so thats when more skill comes in trying to avoid flicks and hooks and shoulders while balancing the ball on the hurley running full pace! and for those saying its too hard to see the ball i cant understand that.. its easy to me but maybe thats years of training!

blackspot91 (Limerick) - Posts: 1055 - 03/02/2015 19:20:08    1689787

Im with master, i just find its not entertaining. But for those that do away you go.
Id never pay to see a hurling match of any degree, i wouldn't watch one for free, its just not my thing at all, i find it boring beyond belief. But for those that don't fire ahead.

royaldunne (Meath) - Posts: 19449 - 03/02/2015 19:31:52    1689792

theMaster,
the skill is being able to control the ball, make room and get the swing in, hitting long in itself is a skill that not many can do. Obviously if your not surrounded you can pick out a man, or if its harder to close you down (like football), prsonally i think therers a lot less skill in that, when your under less pressure, by definition. re my other point, I wasnt talking about you, your reasonable on the matter.

flack (Dublin) - Posts: 1054 - 03/02/2015 19:52:07    1689802

Jaysus I know football is more widespread and popular but I never thought even the most die hard football people would call hurling boring?! But there ya go.. I suppose it's hard to have interest in something your County doesn't compete in as well. I still think most people who have never seen either before would find hurling more interesting.. The NFL boss was on holidays in Ireland and went to a hurling match and said it was the best sport he'd ever seen and Joe Ronan from ufc went crazy when he saw it for the first time. Look up his podcast. That's a couple of examples..

blackspot91 (Limerick) - Posts: 1055 - 03/02/2015 19:58:37    1689805

To those who say they cant see the sliotar,i guess they dont like golf also.

cuederocket (Dublin) - Posts: 5084 - 03/02/2015 19:59:29    1689806

Tomsmith here

Youse have a few hurling clubs in Kildare and I understand that the standard in reasonable
I recall a Cavan player that transferred to Kildare a few years back lined out for a senior Championship game in Kildare and he only lasted the pace for a short time. I understand that Kildare suffered from being a dormitory for Dublin workers and as such most of the good hurlers who live in Kildare are with Dublin clubs

tomsmith (Cavan) - Posts: 3861 - 03/02/2015 20:03:39    1689808

He didn't much better at the football all said and done.

doublehop (Kildare) - Posts: 4172 - 03/02/2015 20:18:08    1689812

Cavan Slasher,

"Did they all come over and tell you that? To be honest a bad football match is better than a good hurling match to many. You either like it or you don't. Many hurlers feel the same way about football."

Not that simple. Why is Camógie quite popular in Cavan then? Why is football in Kilkenny relatively so unpopular? A lot of people in one large area just happen to 'feel' that way?!!

keeper7 (Longford) - Posts: 4088 - 03/02/2015 20:44:20    1689828

blackspot91 i would not agree with you that hurling is more entertaining then football. You mention what Americans make of hurling compared to football, football is more similar to sports that would be big in the usa then hurling so it would be more different then what the are used to. Keeper you seem to think that if someone watched a hurling game that the will be hooked is rubbish and calling lads ignorant as the have no interest in hurling is daft.

ros1 (Roscommon) - Posts: 1211 - 03/02/2015 21:28:12    1689846

Cracking sigerson cup game between UL and NUIG-Maynooth there yesterday.. end to end stuff. final score UL 6 Maynooth 5.. :P

blackspot91 (Limerick) - Posts: 1055 - 04/02/2015 08:40:05    1689863

ROS1 I disagree. what game in america is similar to football? where as they have several popular stick sports such as hockey, ice hockey, lacrose, baseball etc

blackspot91 (Limerick) - Posts: 1055 - 04/02/2015 08:41:49    1689864

Like a lot of sports, I think you have to have played hurling to really appreciate the skills on offer. Someone who has never played snooker simply won't comprehend the mastery on show when the top players play. Ditto for hurling. That is the simple reason why some lads from football counties don't "get" hurling in my opinion.

Dienekes (Laois) - Posts: 6 - 04/02/2015 09:17:42    1689870

While hurling at intercounty level between about 6 counties is excellent and better than what can be found in football, that's where the excellence ends.

The skills of football are easier to master and you therefore have a higher standard generally. Good hurling is difficult to master and if not practised religiously the standards drop off alarmingly.

You get far more mismatches in hurling (between players and teams) which reduces the overall appeal of the game.

tirawleybaron (Mayo) - Posts: 1125 - 04/02/2015 09:49:01    1689877

Love football . Played both hurling and football all my life , 20 years a senior dual player. The thing I like most about football is that it kept me fit for hurling .The non stop running off the ball , covering back , handpassing , covering back , the odd hand-to-toe , (one time I actually kicked the ball where intended - nowadays thats allstar material) , covering back .
Anyone who says hurling is boring compared to football should take the time to maybe re-evaluate their lives ! I mean you cannot be happy living a life of jealous begrudgery all because you could not be arsed learning the skils of playing hurling . Hurling is just miles better to play and watch .. But I still love football too .

Finsceal (None) - Posts: 559 - 04/02/2015 11:01:33    1689911

ROS1,

"Keeper you seem to think that if someone watched a hurling game that the will be hooked is rubbish and calling lads ignorant as the have no interest in hurling is daft."

My experiences of how hurling is treated by so-called GAA people in Longford, Leitrim, Cavan & Fermanagh has helped me to my ignorant/daft conclusion.

keeper7 (Longford) - Posts: 4088 - 04/02/2015 11:15:03    1689919

I'm not anti-football in the slightest: I regularly attend football matches involving my own county. But if I can weigh in on the skills/entertainment debate, I always found hurling to be a more expressive game. You could spend hours at a puck around or striking off a wall. You rarely see 2/3/4 young lads going for a "kick around" with Gaelic football (invariably turns into soccer goalmouth crosses or "3-&-in") or a lad practising the skills of the game on his own off a wall for very long. Obviously there are exceptions to this generalisation but that's always been my experience, having grown up playing both games.

keeper7 (Longford) - Posts: 4088 - 04/02/2015 11:26:41    1689926

tomsmith
A cavan lad played senior hurling for dublin in the 90s, Mick Fitzsimon he was called. He wasnt bad either, a first team player

flack (Dublin) - Posts: 1054 - 04/02/2015 11:58:44    1689945

Just look at all the talk of rules in both codes.

With football its always... we need to bring in this card or allow refs to do this or define tackling rules all to stop cynicism etc etc etc

With hurling its always... Leave the game alone theres nothing wrong with it!!

blackspot91 (Limerick) - Posts: 1055 - 04/02/2015 12:18:02    1689950

blackspot91
County: Limerick
Posts: 83

1688630 Fair enough if your background is football and it's your love, it's not a bad sport.. But you can't say it's better to watch that hurling. Obviously you'd want to watch your own County at the sport it does better in but I'm sure people who have seen neither sports would find hurling a better spectacle! It's end to end high intensity high scoring. No defensive systems and blanket defensive and half forward lines deeper than half back line with constant lateral hand passing and I could go on.. Limerick play clare in munster quarter final and it's gonna be a Hugh occasion and a cracking game. Can you say That for a football provincial football quarter final? As pat Spillane once said watching Donegal v Dublin.. I don't know whether to laugh or cry!

Possibly one of the most ridiculous posts I've seen on Hoganstand, and that's saying something.

Lazy, one-eyed analysis coming from a clear position of bias against one sport. Maybe have a look at what passes for the skill-level in hurling these days - you have maybe KK, Cork, Tipp, Limerick and Clare with a chance of an AI this year, and everyone else is a mile off. I'm not even leaving anyone out who could argue an outside chance - there is literally a huge, huge gulf to the next level, and even the few teams at the next level are miles and miles ahead of counties like my own, and even my own county are about average in terms of ranking counties between 1 to 32 - middle third for sure.

Where is the skill in that?

TheMaster made the point earlier that hurling has now descended into hoofing the ball from one end of the pitch to the other - and he's right. You can talk all day about football relying on physicality too much - the exact same can be said of hurling, which has turned completely into a long-ball, hope-for-the-best kind of game due to there being no space for a shorter, more intelligent game as a result of increased physicality.

What TheMaster has failed to cover is what generally happens at the end of each long ball - a massive scramble for possession of the ball on the ground, with three or four lads using their @rses to back each other out the way, and more hope-for-the-best. Loads of skill in that in fairness. And the few times that a lad catches the ball clean, he either smashes it head-down as far as he can, or lays it off to someone else who does the exact same thing. And all the hurling fans roar, because 'it's great to see a man burst out of the back'. Knuckle-dragging at it's finest.

How's that for a one-eyed footballer response to your equally idiotic one-eyed hurlers post?

jason (Mayo) - Posts: 139 - 04/02/2015 13:01:43    1689975